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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27238258">Three Statements on the Borg Menace</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/zombified_queer/pseuds/zombified_queer'>zombified_queer</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Trek: The Next Generation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Body Horror, Gen, Lovecraftian, Post-assimilation, The Borg</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 22:40:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,243</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27238258</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/zombified_queer/pseuds/zombified_queer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After an expedition into a Borg Sphere, Commander Bruce Maddox is tasked with making sense of the debriefing. Commander Troi is rattled and insisting the android they brought back is not Data. Commander LaForge explains the Sphere is less a machine and more a mouth. Lieutenant Commander Data explains he did the best he could to protect his friends, but has an odd twitch in his neck.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Star Trek Halloween Horror Bang 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Three Statements on the Borg Menace</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A special thanks to <a href="https://gayharrykim.tumblr.com/"> Regnet Rex for providing the artwork for this fic!</a></p><p>And a special thank you to <a href="https://autisticandroids.tumblr.com/"> Autistic Androids for being the beta who got this fic in top top shape!</a></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Maddox steps into the room. The android at the sits up almost imperceptibly straighter, hands folded neatly on the metal surface of the table. Something about the android’s face changes, but Maddox can’t put his finger on what.</p><p>“Lieutenant Commander Data,” Maddox says with a smile, taking a seat. “It’s an honor to be conducting this debriefing.”</p><p>“The pleasure,” Data responds with a voice so authentic he could be human, “is mine.”</p><p>“I hope we can put that nasty business behind us, Da—” </p><p>“I have already,” Data interrupts. “We are here about the Sphere.”</p><p>Maddox nods. He sets the data padd on the table, within Data’s reach.</p><p>“There’s some things I’d like to go over, Data.”</p><p>“Then you have only to ask.”</p><p>Maddox smiles. “Tell me about the crew.”</p><p>Data’s head jerks to the side, almost a nervous twitch. But he purses his lips, thinking it over. He nods.</p><p>“The Sphere, as you know, was deemed safe to board. We had to decide who was best fit for the task of exploration into the Sphere and who would be best left on the Enterprise, in case it was a new strategy by the Borg. </p><p>“Naturally, Counselor Deanna Troi was part of the away team. Not many Betazoids have had experience dealing with these lifeforms and the way they think. She had an ensign from medical accompany her, Ensign Adebayo, in the event anyone was injured.</p><p>“Commander LaForge to handle the task of engineering. Anything we could salvage or study fell under his domain.  And there was Commander Worf. Security detail. And myself to help him since we brought Lore, the Soong-type android, on board.”</p><p>“Right,” Maddox says. “Lore Soong. Your brother, correct? Tell me about him.”</p><p>Data’s lips twitch into a smile. “Lore had the most experience with the Borg as a lifeform and as a technology. Being plugged into their machines once before grants him a whole vista of knowledge no person could hope to achieve by studying the Borg as one or the other.”</p><p>“And you thought you could trust him?”</p><p>“We thought, Commander Maddox, we could control him.”</p>
<hr/><p>When Maddox steps into the room, Counselor Troi still has a cold compress applied to her temple. There’s a bruise still and he regrets not letting the medical team do their work. But they have to be kept separate to keep the story straight.</p><p>She's staring intently at the bottle of water provided. Studying the label, maybe. Or trying to probe Maddox's mind for some answers. He wouldn't blame her for it.</p><p>“Miss Troi?”</p><p>“Counselor,” she corrects, though gently.</p><p>“Right.” Maddox nods. “Counselor Troi.”</p><p>“You don’t believe one of us.” Her dark eyes are full of a sort of fear. “You think we’re lying to cover something up.”</p><p>“I’m only trying to keep the facts straight,” Maddox assures her, taking a seat across from Counselor Troi. “Make sure we understand what exactly happened.”</p><p>“Is Worf alright?” Counselor Troi asks softly. “I thought he...was injured.”</p><p>“He’ll be alright. Resting comfortably,” Maddox tells her. “The sooner we get this over with, the sooner you can go rescue him from medbay food.”</p><p>She laughs, then winces as if her head still hurts. It must, with the bruise over her temple and the abrasion. Nothing too bad, but Maddox sympathizes.</p><p>“It’s very kind,” Counselor Troi tells him. “Ask.”</p><p>“When you first encountered the Sphere, how did you...” Maddox rolls his hand, trying to find the word.</p><p>“Perceive,” Counselor Troi says, lowering the cold compress. </p><p>“How did you perceive it?”</p><p>Counselor Troi looks down at her lap, swallowing. When she looks up, there’s a trace of fear in her face.</p><p>“It sounded like a bottle with stones in it. Hollowly buzzing with activity, but dead. There was life there, but they didn’t have thoughts or feelings, only a list of chores. They would simply fixate on one thing until it was done.”</p><p>Maddox nods. “And when you entered the Sphere?”</p><p>“Much the same,” Counselor Troi sighs. “But louder. And when we entered the core, it was like every individual within the Sphere was multiplied by five or ten others. All linked together.”</p><p>She stops, cutting herself off with a chokes noise. She presses the cold compress to her temple again and closes her eyes. </p><p>“Counselor?”</p><p>“It was like seeing five people where only one should be standing,” she says after a long pause. “And Lore? Lore looked like at least twenty individuals, and sounded like a hundred or even a thousand.”</p><p>“Can I get you anything, Counselor?” Maddox offers. </p><p>Maddox gets up. He eyes Counselor Troi, who has her fingers pressed to her temples. A true migrain, then.</p><p>Opening the door, Maddox locks eyes--or tries to--with the security officer guarding the door. They tilt their helmeted head, visor reflecting Maddox's own face back at him.</p><p>He's given a hypo, loaded with a low dose of painkiller. Standard for a migraine. Maddox is reminded to bag anything leaving the room as evidence.</p><p>He knows to bag the hypo when he's done. He's already been briefed on this debreifing.</p><p>Maddox takes the hypo back into the room. Counselor Troi lifts her head, but keeps her eyes closed. He doesn't pity her. Being a Betazoid has its downsides, Maddox figures.</p><p>A quick press against Counselor Troi's throat and the painkiller is administered. She opens the bottle of water for the first time. After a few sips, she seems ready to resume the questions.</p><p>"Counselor?"</p><p>“It was...painful.”</p><p>“To relive it? I’m sorry.”</p><p>Counselor Troi looks up. “It was painful to know I would live having seen it in the first place.”</p>
<hr/><p>Maddox sets the data padd on the table, not within Commander LaForge’s reach. It wouldn’t matter. Without his visor, he can’t read it.</p><p>“Tell me how you can tell the difference between Data and Lore,” Maddox says.</p><p>Commander LaForge scoffs. “Data likes Sherlock Holmes holoprograms and writing poetry about Spot. Lore likes to cause trouble.”</p><p>“Physically?” Maddox asks. “If I asked you which was which and they were dressed identically, would you be able to separate Lieutenant Commander Data from Lore Soong?”</p><p>“Of course I could.” Commander LaForge leans back in his seat, arms folded over his chest. “Is that what this is about? You think Lore replaced Data?”</p><p>“I think the Soong androids are our key to understanding the Borg.”</p><p>Commander LaForge sighs. “We can’t understand the Borg. And even if we wanted to, you and I both know one android was left in the Sphere.”</p><p>“Tell me how it overloaded.”</p><p>Commander LaForge laughs. “I must’ve blinked and missed it.”</p><p>Maddox disguises his chuckle as a cough. “Excuse me.”</p><p>“Look, Lore attacked us in the core of the thing. Snapped my visor and I think a couple of Worf’s ribs.” Commander LaForge leans in. “But if I know anything about Lieutenant Commander Data, it’s that he can and will overpower Lore if Lore puts his friends at risk.”</p><p>“Which Lore did, correct?”</p><p>“Threatening to wake up the drones into assimilating us isn’t exactly what I look for in a friend.”</p><p>Maddox nods. “So Lore threatened you. And Data...Data saved the day?”</p><p>“I only heard the struggle. I know one of the two pushed the other into the core and it overloaded.”</p><p>“I appreciate the cooperation.”</p>
<hr/><p>Maddox leans back in his chair. “Tell me about the Sphere, Data.”</p><p>Data raises a brow. “You have all the information you need. It should be in the report.”</p><p>Maddox nods. “But I want your version of it. How you saw it. What you felt.”</p><p>Data tilts his head. “How I saw it is exactly how it was recorded.”</p><p>“Tell me again.”</p><p>“The Sphere itself is constructed with every section angled off. Those engineered angles and sharp slopes of metal form what is a Sphere from the exterior but much more like a Cube on the inside. No millimeter of space is wasted, all of it servicing the drones and, beyond that, the Collective as a whole.”</p><p>“What is its purpose?” Maddox asks. “Why a dead Sphere in the middle of space? Why not a Cube?”</p><p>“Spheres are meant for missions of information collection. The scrappers when a ship is damaged by a Cube. From there, things are processed and moved through the Collective.”</p><p>“A mouth, then.”</p><p>Data twitches. “And a stomach.”</p><p>Maddox takes a second to be impressed. This is not a fleet of ships. This is not a civilization as any race in Starfleet knows it. </p><p>This is a threat. </p><p>“Why this Sphere? Was it damaged?”</p><p>“I believe,” Data says with a dark smile, “it was waiting for my brother.”</p>
<hr/><p>“Tell me what you saw,” Maddox asks, watching as Commander LaForge raises his head at the new line of questioning. “Before Lore took—”</p><p>“It’s an engineering feat I couldn’t master if I had a whole Enterprise crew filled with just engineers and architects,” Commander LaForge says. </p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“Because it’s impossible. The whole thing, from the outside, is a Sphere with perfect edges. I know because I measured it. It’s a perfect circle all the way around. And on the inside, it’s formed from sharp angles that would never fit into a Sphere like that.”</p><p>Maddox nods. “You sound sure of it.”</p><p>“I am sure of it,” Commander LaForge answers. “We took the shuttle in. Safer than transporting in case something went wrong. I saw how little space—if any—is left between the exterior hull and the interior of the Sphere.”</p><p>“Not much, I’m guessing.”</p><p>“I think it’s a matter of millimeters.”</p><p>“Then, could the exterior hull be a sort of shell? A cloaking agent?”</p><p>“No,” Commander LaForge answers. “If you put a perfect spherical shell over a cube, you’d end up with too much space wasted.”</p><p>“Then how would those angles fit?” Maddox asks.</p><p>“You tell me,” Commander LaForge says. “You read the report. I was there. I can validate any statement that’s recorded about the Sphere.”</p><p>“Anything?”</p><p>“Anything at all.”</p><p>Maddox picks up his data padd and clears his throat. “From your portion of the report. ‘I was out no longer than a few seconds.’”</p><p>“I was.”</p><p>“How long were you there, Commander LaForge?”</p><p>“An hour. Maybe two at the most.”</p><p>Maddox nods. “And can you tell me what today is? Just what day of the week.”</p><p>“Gregorian calendar.” LaForge whistles. “You really think I’m that out of it?”</p><p>“I think you may have lost more time there than you think you did.”</p><p>“It’s Tuesday,” LaForge says.</p><p>“Wednesday,” Maddox corrects. “But three weeks later.”</p><p>Commander LaForge doesn’t react. Maddox had been warned about telling them the truth. That they might not understand it or accept it. That they could fly into a rage or shut down entirely.</p><p>“Commander?”</p><p>“Where was I?”</p><p>“That’s what we’ve been trying to piece together.”</p><p>Commander LaForge nods slowly, as if hearing something Maddox can’t. </p><p>“Commander?”</p><p>“I want a visor,” Commander LaForge says. “I want to be able to read the report. I want to know what happened.”</p><p>“I can accommodate that.”</p><p>Maddox gets up, opening the door. The guard posted raises a brow at the request, but radios it in. </p><p>Maddox brings the visor to the table, setting it down on the metal table. Commander LaForge takes it slowly and Maddox can see the man’s hands are shaking.</p><p>He’d be shaking too if the roles were switched.</p><p>The visor’s magnetic clamps lock into place with a gentle click. Commander LaForge spends a long time staring at his body, pressing a hand to his chest. </p><p>“We were able to remove most of the components,” Maddox says. “The psychological trauma might be a bit harder.”</p><p>Commander LaForge raises a hand, flexing it as if seeing it for the first time. In a twisted way, he is. His visor was taken before the Borg turned on the crew.</p><p>“I’m part of the Collective.”</p><p>“No,” Maddox assures him. “The Enterprise locked onto your communicator and beamed you out before any extensive damage could be done.”</p><p>Commander LaForge holds up his greyed hand, the tubes and wiring that run through it. “This isn’t extensive damage?”</p><p>“Commander Worf is still in the sickbay. We’re trying to figure out how to sever his connection to the Collective,” Maddox points out. “So your injuries are minor, by comparison.”</p><p>“Did they get Deanna?”</p><p>Maddox raises a brow.</p><p>“If they hooked her up to the Collective then there’s no telling what sort of trouble we could be in.” Commander LaForge leans in. “Vulcans are touch-telepaths but a Betazoid hooked up to the Sphere could have overloaded it.”</p><p>“Explain.”</p><p>Commander LaForge sighs. “You have one bridge on a starship for a reason. Two bridges means you’re splitting control. It makes that ship unable to act quickly if both don’t agree.”</p><p>Maddox nods. “I’m following so far.”</p><p>“The Borg is a hivemind. That Sphere was just a bee box with all the bees put to sleep. Frozen over for the winter or inhaling smoke to calm them down.”</p><p>Maddox folds his arms over his chest.</p><p>“With bees, you introduce a new queen with a small army, some soldiers to protect her. And you place her in a box stuffed with something sweet so the drones take their time to get used to the new queen and won’t kill her.” Commander LaForge lowers his voice. “Imagine that within the Borg Collective. A Betazoid who can hear thoughts and a Borg Queen who commands the hive.”</p><p>“You think they would have ‘stung’ Counselor Troi to death?”</p><p>“Something like it.”</p><p>Maddox watches as Commander LaForge picks at the scabby skin around the tubes and wiring. It can be removed. It’s not a threat, not anymore. The mechanics are just shrapnel now.</p><p>“Did you see what happened to Counselor Troi?” Maddox asks, breaking the silence.</p><p>“She stood still. And then she started screaming and clutching her head. Something about too many people standing in the same spot.” Commander LaForge shrugs as he tears out a piece of plastic tubing from his wrist. “She saw something the rest of us didn’t.”</p><p>Maddox gets up and goes to the door. A quick word and he’s handed a dermal regenerator.</p><p>“Hands on the table, please,” Maddox tells Commander LaForge.</p><p>The man nods, one grey hand resting on the table, palm offered up. His wrist doesn’t bleed like a human would. Whatever the Borg have done makes the wound leak a deep black substance, like unrefined oil.</p><p>And it reeks of sulfur. Maddox has spent enough time in the labs to know sulfur.</p><p>The dermal regenerator closes up the wound, but not without hiccuping the entire time. Almost as if the thing doesn’t recognize him as human. </p><p>Maddox supposes the machine’s partly correct. There’s more metal and plastic under Commander LaForge’s skin that the dermal regenerator might detect. And it won’t be very productive to use it too much without the shrapnel out of the way.</p><p>But Commander LaForge, Maddox knows, is human. </p><p>“Doesn’t seem to like me much,” Commander LaForge says, folding his hands in his lap. “Hopefully the other machines on the Enterprise aren’t as skittish.”</p><p>“You won’t be going back on the Enterprise.” Maddox switches the dermal regenerator off. It’ll need to be bagged. “Extended shore leave for everyone involved.”</p><p>“And I’m guessing I’m not going to Risa anytime soon.”</p><p>Maddox chuckles. “As much as I would like that to be the case. No. No Risa trips. But I can program the replicators to offer some tropical cocktails.”</p><p>Commander LaForge shakes his head. “So what will we be doing? I imagine you’re going to pull a lot of metal out of us and study it.”</p><p>Maddox nods. Technically, he’s not supposed to reveal anything. Not the tests they’ll have to endure or the weeks of being studied for signs of the Borg’s influence progressing. But he can nod as a nervous tic.</p><p>“Data?”</p><p>“He’s fine, Commander.” Maddox meets Commander LaForge’s stare. “Perfectly safe.”</p><p>Or, at least, as safe as they can figure. It’s odd to have an android back that wasn’t plugged into the Sphere. Maddox has that sinking feeling the android that came back isn’t the one they think it is.</p><p>“Data.” Commander LaForge rolls the two syllables around in his mouth, clacking against his teeth. “You’re sure it’s not Lore?”</p><p>“Quite certain, Commander.”</p><p>
  
</p><p>“Lore must’ve shared his discoveries with you, Data.” Maddox tilts his head, meeting Data’s stare. “He thought the two—” </p><p>“Three, Maddox,” Data amends. “Lore, Juliana Tainer, and I. Four if you count Lal.”</p><p>“Right.” Maddox nods. “He thought you were head and shoulders above other races.”</p><p>“We are...studier,” Data says. “And quicker to offer solutions. Lore, perhaps, had the greatest capacity for empathy.”</p><p>“Do you think he felt empathy?”</p><p>Data closes his mouth. He simply stares at Maddox. And it strikes Maddox how silent Data’s processes are. The fluorescent lights in the room hum louder than Data’s processors. </p><p>“Did he share his knowledge from the Sphere with you?”</p><p>Data shakes his head.</p><p>“Why not? Didn’t he think he could trust you?” Maddox leans back in his chair. “Off the record, I don’t think Lore was fond of you, Data.”</p><p>Data twitches, as if Maddox slapped him with that implication. For the briefest moment, there’s something angry looking out of Data’s eyes. Something Maddox has never seen before, not even when Data’s very personhood was on trial.</p><p>And then it’s gone again, the android clearing his throat.</p><p>“Lore holds no love for things he thinks are beneath him, Maddox.”</p><p>Maddox nods. </p><p>Data doesn’t say anything, doesn’t offer anything more. He simply watches as Maddox leans in.</p><p>“I’m still not understanding some pieces of it, Data.” Maddox lowers his voice, as if a whisper would really go unnoticed. “Run me through the sequence again.”</p><p>Data raises a brow, looking down his nose at Maddox. “It would be easier if we had a holodeck to replay the events.”</p><p>Maddox smiles. “You understand why I can’t do that, don’t you?”</p><p>Data says nothing. Offers nothing. He just sits there.</p><p>“Please? Help me understand, Data. I want to help you and your friends, but it’s difficult if I’m missing pieces of the puzzle.”</p><p>Data thinks about it, then nods solemnly. </p><p>“Thank you, Data.”</p><p>“Don’t thank me yet.”</p><p>Maddox raises a brow, but doesn’t say a word.</p><p>Data takes a deep breath. “We were selected to investigate the Sphere. All of us I have already explained. And because the Sphere was simply...floating there. No direction. No communication chatter. Just dead silence in dead space.”</p><p>Maddox nods for Data to continue.</p><p>“We took a shuttle in. It was safer than transporters and would give us an alternate route of escape, in the event something happened,” Data continues. “But every drone on that Sphere wandered. If they completed their tasks, they would amble about, walking the entirety of the Sphere over and over without any sort of goal.”</p><p>“Counselor Troi—”</p><p>“I am getting to that,” Data corrects firmly. </p><p>“Right.” Maddox sniffs. “Sorry.”</p><p>“Counselor Troi, it was assumed, could listen in on their communication. The hive mind that controls every Borg drone across lightyears of space.” Data shrugs, as if slipping out of an uncomfortable memory. “They were right, but it took its toll on her. Counselor Troi sees something the rest of us do not, Maddox. When she was listening to them, it drove her half-mad.”</p><p>“She said it was like seeing twenty people crammed into the space of one.”</p><p>“Maybe more,” Data amends. “Every drone is in conversation with every other drone. One drove could be talking to twenty or twenty-thousand or twenty-million. Seeing that level of compression in the space of one individual would be hard to digest for anyone.” </p><p>Data leans in, fingers steepled. Swallowing, Maddox locks eyes with the android.</p><p>“Now imagine hearing all that noise.”</p><p>Maddox shudders at the thought. Like a room full of people compacted into one individual. Or a stadium of people compacted into one spot. </p><p>“You get it.” Data leans back, giving Maddox a blank stare. “Imagine being hooked up to it.”</p><p>Maddox raises a brow.</p><p>“Lore wouldn’t share it with me. It was something that had to be experienced.”</p><p>“Who hit LaForge?”</p><p>"<i>Commander</i> LaForge," Data corrects, "was assaulted by Lore."</p><p>Maddox doesn’t say a word, inviting Data to continue.</p><p>“Lore did not want Commander LaForge—my friend—to understand the way the Sphere worked and how Lore was able to control it. He knocked Commander LaForge unconscious.”</p><p>“And Counselor Troi? Ensign Adebayo? Security Chief Worf? The security personnel?”</p><p>“Counselor Troi, at the shock of hearing so many individuals compressed into one space, blacked out. Ensign Adebayo tended to her when Counselor Troi hit her head.” Data studies Maddox coldly. “Security Chief Worf was, unfortunately, no match for Lore. Especially when the Borg drones seemed to come alive to help him.”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“Because they thought Lore was one of them,” Data offers. “Because he could control the Sphere. Or thought he could.”</p><p>“Thought?”</p><p>“Lore and I were built from more or less the same components. I helped Lore connect to the Sphere and then overloaded the system. I knew exactly how dangerous Lore’s Sphere was.” Data looks down at his hands. “I have, regrettably, killed my brother.”</p><p>“So how’d you get them out?”</p><p>Data swallows. A nervous habit, maybe, or a display of being synthetically human. “I dragged Counselor Troi and Ensign Adebayo back to the shuttle.”</p><p>“And then you stayed.” Maddox crosses his arms over his chest. “Why?”</p><p>“Would you leave a friend behind?” Data asks. “And I needed space to grieve Lore. Humans can only provide so much comfort when they assume you are incapable of feeling.”</p><p>Maddox nods. “And you assumed control?”</p><p>“For a brief moment. Long enough to release Worf and Geordi from the process of becoming Borg.”</p><p>“So you saw what Lore saw?”</p><p>Data’s head snaps up and he locks eyes with Maddox. “It was beautiful. A sense of belonging and complete control. Purely mechanical and so biological it ached. Imagine being powerful beyond your control. Limitless”</p><p>“That’s how it felt?”</p><p>“That is how it was, Commander.” Data taps his fingers along the table’s surface. “A fact, not a feeling.”</p><p>“What’s the difference between the two?”</p><p>“You can’t lift a crate of stembolts normally. That’s a fact, is it not?” Data posits. “And I am limited in my abilities, even as an android.”</p><p>“So you’re saying it was like steroids?”</p><p>“No.” Data fixes Maddox with that cold stare again. “Being beyond yourself. Something new entirely.”</p><p>Maddox watches a single tear spill down Data’s cheek. It’s not the reaction he’d expected from an android. Data met his own creator and didn’t cry. Maddox knows from reading Data's personal logs. </p><p>It’s uncanny to see Data cry.</p><p>Like someone seeing the face of god, Maddox thinks. But he shuts that thought down. There are no gods or masters in this report. Only cold, hard facts.</p><p>Data wipes the single tear away, as if embarrassed. </p><p>“What did it feel like?”</p><p>“Like being a god,” Data says. “I knew everything. Could feel everything. Could hear everything. It felt like too much at once.”</p><p>“Which is why you disconnected?”</p><p>“The Sphere could not handle two bodies in it. It was set to self-destruct and I had no way to stop it.”</p><p>“The shuttle?”</p><p>“I had the drones create one as a means to escape with Worf and Geordi. Worf had been completely swallowed by the beast.”</p><p>“The Sphere.”</p><p>Data nods. “But I did not think they were lost. It was not a Sphere like any other.”</p><p>“Because of Lore.”</p><p>Data shrugs. “I am not certain.”</p><p>“So you opened the pods. Released them. Then what?”</p><p>Data folds his hands politely on the table. “I took Commanders Worf and LaForge to the makeshift shuttle. The Enterprise refused us to dock. Instead, they kept us tractored until we were brought here.”</p><p>“And the Sphere overloaded.”</p><p>“It did. And, I assume, it has exploded.”</p><p>“We found debris. Some parts consistent with the things you’re made from, Data.” Maddox tilts his head. “What’s the difference between you and Lore?”</p><p>“Considering you’re not going to find a positronic brain to examine?” Data posits. “Not a single thing. Same materials, same amount.”</p><p>“And if I opened your head up, I’d find Data’s brain in there.”</p><p>“Commander, you are more than welcome to subject me to any examination that would ensure your sleep is sound.” Data twitches, then settles. “I encourage it.”</p><p>Maddox nods. He gets up, going to the door to request the tools. They’re passed to him with the expectation he’ll bag them after use. </p><p>Maddox gloves up for the procedure. Data gives him a blank stare, only gesturing to the panel along his temple before folding his hands in his lap again.</p><p>With the panel open, Maddox notes how quietly every process in Data’s body operates. A faint hum under the synthetic skin, but no more than the deep and low rumblings of a starship. The kind a person gets used to after years. </p><p>It’s not wholly unpleasant.</p><p>“There should be a marker,” Data tells Maddox. “It’s what makes Lore’s brain incompatible with chips developed for my model.”</p><p>And Maddox finds it. A little piece of processor whose miniscule label denotes this is, according to all records on Data Soong, Data’s brain.</p><p>“Are you satisfied?” Data asks. “I know Lore is one prone to trickery and deception.”</p><p>“It really is you.” Maddox closes the panel gently, marvelling how seamlessly it blends into the rest of Data’s head. “Data Soong in the flesh.”</p><p>“Who else could it be?” Data asks, turning to look up at Maddox.</p>
<hr/><p>“Counselor?”</p><p>Counselor Troi snaps out of her trance. “Sorry.”</p><p>“No need to apologize. You’ve been through a lot,” Maddox states. “What’s on your mind?”</p><p>“I’m worried about Data.”</p><p>“Why?” Maddox would reach out and take her hand but he’s been instructed not to. </p><p>“The Borg collect people like...like blood cells. Each one carries things between their ships and attacks any foreign bodies.” Counselor Troi stares at the wall on her right. “It wouldn't be easy for Lore to take over the Sphere. The Sphere is an organ in a much larger organism. Something that would notice if an organ was infected.”</p><p>“You think Lore did something?” </p><p>“I do.” Counselor Troi raises a hand to her mouth, chewing at her nails. It’s not something in her personnel file. “I think Lore knew the Borg were more than a hivemind. He...corrupted them somehow.”</p><p>“Corrupted them?”</p><p>“I think Lore’s body was left physically on the Sphere, but whoever’s in Data’s head isn’t him.”</p><p>“Counselor?”</p><p>“The Sphere only facilitated the switch.” Counselor Troi’s dark eyes are filled with a glint of fervent belief. “Lore planned this out. He wanted us to take him to the Sphere and he wanted to trade bodies with Data.”</p><p>She leaps out of her chair, pacing the wall her interrogation room shares with Data. She murmurs softly, as if trying to tell Maddox every thought the android’s having. Or maybe recounting things she’s seen on the Sphere. It’s too quiet to tell and too fast to make anything out of it.</p><p>“Counselor, please, take a seat.” Maddox nods at the chair across from him. “Would you like anything?”</p><p>The bottle of water sits on the table, still half-full. Maddox knows it’ll have to be bagged, bright pink smudge of lipstick, water, and all.</p><p>Counselor Troi shakes her head. Her eyes are squeezed tight, as if she’s having another migraine. </p><p>Or trying to get something out of her head.</p><p>But she takes the seat across from Maddox. There’s a dullness in her eyes, exhausted by the outburst. </p><p>“You put me between the two of them,” Counselor Troi says. “I know Geordi’s thoughts. Even as a half-Betazoid it’s a passive ability to understand who’s thinking.”</p><p>“How?”</p><p>“Patterns. Geordi thinks about Data a lot. His thoughts are...We all associate colors to certain fields. Geordi’s thoughts, to me, are blue.” She stares at the wall. “He’s worried.”</p><p>Maddox had thought they’d made the rooms telepathy proof. Just another thing to note in his report. He watches her get out of her chair, turning to the other wall.</p><p>“Is something wrong, Counselor?”</p><p>“That’s not Data.”</p><p>“I’m sorry?”</p><p>“Their thoughts are tangible. I can hear them.” She folds her arms over her chest and shudders. “Whoever is in the room on my right is not Data Soong.”</p>
<hr/><p>Maddox gloves up in the blinding white lights of the lab. Data had been wrong to assume the head of Lore Soong was unrecoverable. It just took a couple scans of the materials that make up a positronic brain through the debris to find. </p><p>It’s heavy. Evenly distributed but heavier than any humanoid head has a right to be.</p><p>The synthetic skin is melted in some places, still hot to the touch after days spent in the vacuum of space. The synthetic hair’s burnt and Maddox is almost convinced it’s some kind of animal hide instead of plastic or acrylic. The features are distorted, sort of sloping to one side. The metal of the skull prods at Maddox’s glove as he turns the head over to inspect every inch of it.</p><p>“Let’s see who you really are,” Maddox murmurs. </p><p>He opens the panel on the side of the deformed head. The positronics are dead and quiet in Maddox’s hands. He wipes them gently with cloth, something that will need to be bagged. The dust will have to be tested. </p><p>With the exposed portion of the brain wiped clean of soot, Maddox can go rooting around for the processor. </p><p>It’s not in the same spot as Data’s.</p><p>Something intriguing for the report. This is decidedly not Data’s head. There can be no doubt that Maddox is holding the head of Lore, torn from the android’s body in the explosion.</p><p>Maddox chuckles to himself. A breakthrough in consolation of Lore being kept out of labs. </p><p>When he finds the processor, he notes it’s been jostled. Just the slightest bit loose from the rest of the brain. </p><p>In a moment of insatiable curiosity, Maddox presses the processor back into place, listening to that little snap.</p><p>The brain lights up in a sickly green and the deformed mouth moving makes Maddox drop the head. He watches it roll, mouth opening and closing, motors whirring like it’s an amusement park animatronic instead of the remains of Lore Soong. </p><p>A tube--one Maddox isn’t familiar with and doesn’t think is Soong’s work--snakes along the lab tiles. </p><p>He should radio this in. He should get behind the door and make the call that something has breached every safety protocol.</p><p>But he watches the head attach to an arm, swaying as it stumbles with the hand turned into a clumsy foot. </p><p>“Bruce Maddox,” the deformed head says. “Where is Lore?”</p><p>And then he blacks out as the thing skitters toward him, its deformed face turned into a stoic mask of questioning as more Borg cybernetics sprout from it, waving toward him.</p>
<hr/><p>Maddox hates the room they’ve put him in. It overlooks the garden of the wellness retreat. When he stares at the tenderly cared-for orchids, he keeps seeing the face of Lore Soong propped up on an arm, cybernetics reaching for him.</p><p>Not Lore, Maddox reminds himself. Lore was in the interrogation room. Even if no one believes him, it was Lore sitting there and telling him the Sphere made him feel like a god.</p><p>And now Lore is out there. Free.</p>
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